IP: Call For Responses

I am studying the invasion of privacy because I want to find out about the tactics behind the U.S government tracking in order to help my readers understand the recording of information.

How does the U.S. government track its citizens?

In this article by USA Today, it discusses how the U.S. government tracked phone calls. It was mentioned that the government had been tracking phone calls to find out about crimes that people committed. The main thing they look out for are leads on drug cartels and distribution. They mention that the DEA does not intercept the phone calls but keep track of incoming and outgoing calls. In my opinion, I can’t trust that statement because they are capable of anything. They can do as much as intercept my computer camera and watch me in my natural habitat.

In this other article, the author talks about multiple ways the government tracks us. The first thing they mention is the NSA (National Security Administration). The NSA is known to collect information from the Internet where they analyze and store data. Another thing on the list that interests me was facial recognition. Many criminals have been found through facial recognition, in which law enforcement looks at security footage and use computer software to clear the image and look for the suspect. This article has more of a variety on how the government tracks us versus the other article that only talk about phone calls specifically.

Call for Responses:

What would you do if the government were tracking you?

What can you do to prevent it? Or is it inevitable?

Do you think that technology is a major contributor to the invasion of privacy?

Post navigation

9 thoughts on “IP: Call For Responses”

If the government were tracking me I wouldn’t care much because I’m not involved in anything illegal. Besides, after they monitored my life for a few days they would see Im pretty boring and leave me alone 🙂 I don’t really care if the government is tracking its citizens as long as it keeps us safe. Yeah I know I sound like I’ve been brainwashed but the truth is we don’t really know how many threats the government has been able to divert because of espionage, because that kind of information would be classified. About the second question I was actually watching a show on Netflix the other day and some guy said the only way to avoid being tracked is by using that program Tor that blocks websites from storing your data. The interesting thing about Tor is that it was created by a government employee, but nowadays most of its users are drug dealers and pedophiles so I wouldn’t recommend using it :). About the third question, yes, absolutely. I remember a story I saw online once about this girl who was pregnant and did some shopping at Target and then Target sent her some coupons for baby items. The only problem was she was a teenager and her dad didn’t know she was pregnant, and he opened the letter with the coupons. He got angry at Target and went to a store to complain (kinda crazy and overboard, but ok), but then the daughter had to confess. And the items she bought were not diapers and pacifiers but random things like regular vitamins and cotton balls, which anyone could be buying. Here’s a link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/. Anyways, Target was able to track people through their credit cards. And if a corporation can do that, imagine the powers the government has!

I think there is nothing we can do if the government were tracking us and it’s inevitable, just make sure we don’t do things illegal then we won’t be in trouble.
Yes, technology is a major contributor to the invasion of privacy. For instance, surveillance is everywhere in our daily life. It watches you. That is technology and also a watcher. Under the surveillance, there is no privacy.
Do you think the government should tracking us? Why do you think they do it? I think you can research some articles about Edward Snowden and see what people say about him.

It’s inevitable. I believe we are always being watched/tracked by big brother. Although, it is a huge invasion of privacy- i do see why it would be necessary. In the world we live in today, there are a lot of ways to disturb the peace through technology. I don’t care much that I’m being tracked because I am not doing anything illegal that would get me on their radar or would lead me to trouble. How do you feel about the government tracking us? what are your opinions on it?

I LOVE how Hosna and Marina both provide helpful links here! Great response guys. The Target scenario that Marina mentions is a bit scary — I hadn’t heard about this. We assume that companies track our buying habits, but do we think of the ways these buying habits could potentially come back to “haunt” us, or be misconstrued, or misused?

A question for you: Do you plan to look at security issues only? Because it seems that tracking our buying brings about a whole new box of issues, and all of them interesting. Many would say, as Jaffey and Hosna, that some government surveillance is necessary and inevitable. It’s more the other types of tracking that are unrelated to “terrorism” that interests me.

I think the government tracking us is something that is inevitable. In a way, I guess it could be kind of helpful in that more criminals and such would be caught or stopped before they were able to commit a crime. But at the same time, it is kind of scary to think about how much information the government might have on us that we don’t even know about.

I think that I personally wouldn’t mind the government tracking me as long as it’s all used to keep me and the rest of us whom they are tracking, safe. To a certain degree I think tracking is useful because the government is keeping tabs on civilians to make sure nothing out of the ordinary could result harmful to society as a whole. I love your topic because yes it’s controversial and many people don’t agree on this subject but to me you have to look at the bigger picture and what would benefit us more.

I’ve joked about the idea that my google search history put me on a list in some government database, but I really think there could be truth in that. Private companies that control our communication data, such as AT&T, are known to roll over for the government and hand them any information they want.
I think that technology is the only reason privacy is a major issue on our time. To steal information, you used to have to break into physical buildings and find physical pieces of paper. Now its all about outsmarting each other behind their computer screens.

First, I recommend you reading George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, is very interesting.

Honestly, I’m not worried about our government tracking my movements(cyber,cellular..etc). I have nothing to hide that O’Brien(government agent) would find interesting. Sure, store my dirty searches of Rihanna, document late “as we create” post and scrutinize online homework. I feel if your conducting yourself like a proper citizen you don’t have to worry about “Big Brother” knocking down your door. Bro, don’t beat yourself up worrying about it, I mean does 2+2 really equal five?

To me, government’s surveillance on us is inevitable. Nowadays, government indeed takes national security over privacy. I think it’s fair enough to give in for such purpose. However, I don’t like that businesses are also capable of tracking my online habits. I feel it is annoying and sometimes insecure. Once time I saw an interesting post on Facebook (apparently it was an malicious, incredible ad but I didn’t pay attention, I thought it was just a page that liked by my friend), after clicking on it, my Facebook’s news feed loaded with irritating articles. Technology plays a big role in today privacy since we do put lots of our personal information online yet the power and knowledge about hacking/viruses are not that wide known.